table talk / By Joseph Byrd

A Glass in the Barn

Remembering the magical pre-boom days of California wine

(Oct. 2, 2008)  Who would have thought there would ever be two successful movies about American wine? But following on the heels of Sideways (based on Merlot-tasting in Santa Barbara wine country), comes Bottle Shock, a critically acclaimed comedy based on George Taber’s book Judgment of Paris: California Vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine.

Any time I need a reality check on just how damn old I am, I can always think back to 1959, when I was in graduate school at Stanford, drinking raw, cheap “Mountain Red,” purchased by the gallon at an outlet store on El Camino Real. “Jug wine” came in red and white, although the name on the jug was usually “Burgundy” or “Chablis.”

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While there were a few vineyards selling better quality table wines in the ’50s, single bottles made up just one percent of California’s output. The Gallo brothers had contracts with vineyards all over the state; even the older Napa vintners like Almaden sold 80 percent of their wine to Gallo, which was then all mixed together and bottled.

Jug wine was $2, but the white was sour and the red harsh. A common solution was to mix with 7-Up, making a “wine cooler.” Gallo were expert marketers, and this did not escape their notice: They mixed fortified wine with lemonade, creating “Thunderbird.”

My introduction to New York wine was no more impressive. New York State wines were far worse than California’s, and French wines were astronomical — $10 and up, enough for two entire meals out.

But then I went to work as secretary to a well-to-do composer and critic, Virgil Thomson. He was a Francophile, and while we did not socialize, I learned that enjoying wine was necessary to becoming a cultured person.

The signal event in my education came when my girlfriend gave me a birthday present of a half-bottle of Chateau Lafite-Rothschild 1959 (cost: $17). And with that first taste I was hooked. It was soft, generous, floral to the nose and fruity to the tongue, with not a hint of alcohol — it invited one to quaff, not cautiously sip. Like drinking pure essence of grapes. Like drinking for thirst, for pleasure, not to get high.

It changed everything.

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